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Comment by tonysdg | Hacker News Reader

Growing up in Upstate NY, I always assumed part of it was also due to the fact that breaks during the winter basically translate to hours spent cooped-up inside, watching TV or playing on the computer.

I know that the 3-month summer break stems from historical harvest/planting schedules... but when there's 20 inches of snow outside and the wind chill is -10 F, I'll take 3 months of summer vacay over 6 weeks of summer and 6 weeks of winter breaks any day.

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The summer break is also often when the weather is the hottest. Many schools don't have air conditioning, but would need it to provide a conducive learning environment in the heat of the summer. A schedule change combined with a few degrees of climate change turns a few rather hot days a school year into weeks of being too hot to learn.

I grew up north of Edmonton (regular -40f for several weeks), and would have loved a 6 week winter break. Outdoor hockey & cross country skiing, snowshoeing, downhill skiing. I know I would have been out on the rink every day.

Current system: 2 weeks in winter and 10 in summer.

I don't think the alternative is 6/6. I think it's more like 3 in winter, 3 in summer, 3 in spring, and 3 in fall. Or even more spread out.

In the UK I believe ours is six weeks in the summer, two weeks Christmas, two weeks Easter, then one week in the middle of each term (three per year).

I'd have to actually check though, been a while.

Winter break is to save money on heating. Which is why it doesn't exist in lower latitudes of the US.

Winter break very much exists in the bottom half of the US.

The mid-February break GP was alluding to doesn't.

Just occurred to me, as "heat waves" become the norm for longer periods of time, I'm sure there will be people arguing for the cost-savings of not having to cool the school buildings during the summer.

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